Distributed computing dependency management system

ABSTRACT

Various methods and systems for implementing dependency management for an infrastructure are provided. A dependency service manager of the dependency management system includes a plurality of dependency management system components that facilitate automatically discovering and analyzing data to generate dependency data. The dependency data includes dependencies and dependents of dependency service tenants which are tenant services of the infrastructure. The dependency data is generated based on data retrieved by a plurality of collectors. A collector from the plurality of collectors is an agent that retrieves data associated with dependency service tenants based on a corresponding collection time attribute of the collector. A collector accesses data for generating the dependency data at one of the following collection times: design time, deployment time and runtime. The dependency data that is generated is then stored in a data store and communicated to a dependency service interface for user access to the dependency data.

This application claims priority to U.S. Provisional Application Ser.No. 62/274,102, filed Dec. 31, 2015, entitled “DISTRIBUTED COMPUTINGDEPENDENCY MANAGEMENT SYSTEM,” which is incorporated herein by referencein its entirety.

BACKGROUND

Large-scale networked systems are commonplace platforms employed in avariety of settings for running applications and maintaining data forbusiness and operational functions. For instance, a data center (e.g.,physical cloud computing platform) may provide a variety of services(e.g., web applications, email services, search engine services, etc.)for a plurality of customers simultaneously. These large-scale networkedsystems typically include a large number of resources distributedthroughout the data center or throughout multiple data centers in aregion or multiple regions across the globe. Resources can resemble aphysical machine or a virtual machine (VM) running on a physical node orhost. The data center runs on hardware (e.g., power supplies, racks, andNetwork Interface Controllers (NIC)) and software components(Applications, Application Programming Interfaces (APIs), SQL Databases)that rely on each other to operate. In particular, services that includeone or more components operate based on dependencies with one another.Services are often managed independently by different teams with oftenad hoc approaches for resolving dependency issues that arise with othercomponents.

SUMMARY

Embodiments described herein provide methods and systems forimplementing a dependency management system for an infrastructure (e.g.,distributed computing infrastructure). At a high level, dependencymanagement facilitates automatically discovering, building and analyzingdependencies for tenant services in an infrastructure. A dependencyservice manager of the dependency management system includes a pluralityof dependency management system components (e.g., collectors, a standardname provider and a dependency aggregator) that facilitate generatingdependency data. The dependency data includes dependencies anddependents of dependency service tenants which are tenant services ofthe infrastructure. The dependency service tenants are associated withthe dependency management system. The dependency data is generated basedon data retrieved by a plurality of collectors. A collector from theplurality of collectors is an agent that retrieves data associated withdependency service tenants of the infrastructure based on acorresponding collection time attribute of the collector. A collectoraccesses data for generating the dependency data at one of the followingcollection times: design time, deployment time and runtime. Thedependency service manager operates to crosscheck data collected by theplurality collectors and generate relations between dependency servicetenants and corresponding dependency and dependent components.

The dependency data that is generated is then stored in a data store andcommunicated to a dependency service interface for user access to thedependency data. In embodiments, the infrastructure includes anon-premise infrastructure that syncs the dependency data. The dependencyservice interface supports providing different views of the dependencydata to allow user access and analysis of the dependency data. Thedependency data is also accessible via a data graph representation; thedata graph representation provides an alternate access and functionalview of the dependency data. The dependency data presented via thedependency service interface or data graph representation can further beused to perform dependency service operations for the infrastructure.

This summary is provided to introduce a selection of concepts in asimplified form that are further described below in the detaileddescription. This summary is not intended to identify key features oressential features of the claimed subject matter, nor is it intended tobe used in isolation as an aid in determining the scope of the claimedsubject matter.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The present invention is described in detail below with reference to theattached drawing figures, wherein:

FIGS. 1A-1C are exemplary dependency service interfaces for accessingdependency data, in accordance with embodiments described herein;

FIGS. 2A-2B are exemplary graphical representations of dependency data,in accordance with embodiments described herein;

FIG. 3A is a block diagram of an exemplary distributed computinginfrastructure and dependency management system, in which embodimentsdescribed herein may be employed;

FIG. 3B is a block diagram of an exemplary dependency management processflow, in accordance with embodiments described herein;

FIG. 3C is an illustration of an exemplary artifact and relationshiplogic of dependency service tenants, in accordance with embodimentsdescribed herein;

FIG. 4 is a flow diagram showing an exemplary method for providing adependency management system, in accordance with embodiments describedherein;

FIG. 5 is a flow diagram showing an exemplary method for providing adependency management system interface, in accordance with embodimentsdescribed herein;

FIG. 6 is a block diagram of an exemplary computing environment suitablefor use in implementing embodiments described herein; and

FIG. 7 is a block diagram of an exemplary computing environment suitablefor use in implementing embodiments described herein.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

A distributed computing infrastructure (e.g., a cloud computinginfrastructure) can offer building, deployment and managementfunctionality for different types of applications and services. Thedistributed computing infrastructure can include several physical andvirtual resources that facilitate providing cloud-based computingfunctionality. For example, a data center includes a number ofdistributed resources including physical machines or a virtual machine(VM) running on a physical node or host. The data center runs onhardware (e.g., power supplies, racks, and Network Interface Controllers(NIC)) and software components (Applications, Application ProgrammingInterfaces (API), SQL Databases) that rely on each other to operate. Thedistributed computing infrastructure can be monitored and managed usinga distributed computing platform kernel (e.g., a fabric controller(“FC”)). The distributed computing infrastructure can also include anon-premise infrastructure (e.g., a tenant of the distributed computinginfrastructure) where services and applications functionally extend intofor performing operations on-premise.

Generally, services in the distributed computing infrastructure thatinclude one or more components operate based on dependencies with oneanother. Services are often managed independently by different teamswith often ad hoc approaches to resolving dependency issues that arisewith other components. Moreover, some teams operate services running invirtualized environments and may not know the dependencies on physicalresources (e.g., network devices, power devices, or generators). Withthe differing approaches for addressing dependency management,determining what dependencies exist, communicating dependencies andresolving dependency issues can present challenges for a distributedcomputing infrastructure. As such, a comprehensive system forconfiguring, identifying and communicating dependencies betweendistributed computing infrastructure components can improve theassessment, understanding and reliability of the distributed computinginfrastructure.

Embodiments of the present invention are directed to efficient methodsand systems for dependency management. The dependency management systemcan be implemented as a service or application (hereinafter “dependencyservice”) in a distributed computing infrastructure. At a high level,dependency management facilitates automatically discovering, buildingand analyzing dependencies for tenant services in an infrastructure. Adependency service manager of the dependency management system includesa plurality of dependency management system components (e.g.,collectors, a standard name provider and a dependency aggregator) thatfacilitate generating dependency data. The dependency data includesdependencies and dependents of dependency service tenants which aretenant services of the infrastructure. The dependency service tenantsare associated with the dependency management system. The dependencydata is generated based on data retrieved by a plurality of collectors.A collector from the plurality of collectors is an agent that retrievesdata associated with dependency service tenants of the infrastructurebased on a corresponding collection time attribute of the collector. Acollector accesses data for generating the dependency data at one of thefollowing collection times: design time, deployment time and runtime.The dependency service manager operates to crosscheck data collected bythe plurality collectors and generate relations between dependencyservice tenants and corresponding dependency and dependent components.

The dependency data can be leveraged for dependency service operations.Advantageously, the generated dependency data enables verifying adeclarative service dependency model of the dependency managementsystem, alerting missing dependencies, suppressing notification noiseand other operations such as helping incident impact analysis. Analysisservices (i.e., verifying the declarative service dependency model,alerting missing dependencies, and suppressing notification noise) canbe further used to verify and extend each other. The dependency datafurther helps developers understand dependencies and prioritize servicerecovery by introducing a recovery path and integrating with recoveryworkflows.

The particular services and components that are supported and discoveredby the dependency service can be referred to as dependency servicetenants. A dependency service tenant can be associated with anadministrator, owner, operator or client of the dependency servicetenant. A dependency service tenant can be implemented as one or moreinstances of a dependency service tenant. A tenant name can beassociated with a dependency service tenant; however the tenant name isnot necessarily a global unique identifier (GUID) but a more meaningfulname.

Throughout this disclosure, several acronyms and shorthand notations areused to aid the understanding of certain concepts pertaining to theassociated system and services. These acronyms and shorthand notationsare intended to help provide an easy methodology of communicating theideas expressed herein and are not meant to limit the scope of thepresent invention.

-   -   ALMap Application Layer Map—static (build time) declaration of        service layering order    -   CS Configuration Store—repository of configurations/settings    -   DNS Domain Name Service    -   FC Fabric Controller dependency graph    -   MA Monitoring Agent—agent deployed within service    -   MDS Monitoring and Diagnostic Service—analysis service for        monitoring and diagnostic data    -   SVD Service Model Definition—design time    -   TFS Team Foundation Server    -   VIP Virtual IP address

The dependency management system can support graphical user interfacesthat facilitate accessing and interacting with features andfunctionality supported by the dependency system. The dependency data isaccessible via a data graph representation. The dependency data can begenerated and stored in a data store and communicated to a dependencyservice interface for user access to the dependency data. The dependencydata can further be provided through APIs (Application ProgrammingInterface) for other services to utilize (e.g., an alert suppressionservice can plug into dependency data APIs to suppress alerts that arecoming from services that depend on a failing service). In an exemplaryembodiment, the dependency management system may include a web frontend(“FE”) that provides users the ability to visualize both thedependencies for a given dependency service tenant and the dependent(impacted) services of the dependency service tenant. The dependencymanagement system discovers the components or services within thecomponents that a dependency tenant service depends on, along with otherdependencies. For instance, if a dependency service tenant depends onstorage, the dependency service further identifies and exposes storageaccounts and certificates associated with the dependency service tenant.

The dependency management system supports different types of viewingexperiences to provide access to the dependency data. The dependencymanagement system can communicate dependency data to a dependencyservice interface that is generated on a display. The dependencymanagement system can also support a data graph representation of thedependency data, as discussed herein in more detail. With reference toFIGS. 1A-1C, an exemplary dependency service interface 100 (e.g.,portal) is provided. The dependency service interface 100 may be aportal for communicating information configured and implemented via thedependency management system. The dependency service interface 100 cansupport selectable views for presenting and accessing the dependencydata. Within each view, the user can browse a collection of dependencyinformation, aggregate, and order the dependencies (and resources). Theviews aggregate common services; however, the user should be able to seeindividual service dependencies. By way of example, a portal can includetwo views to present the dependency information: a “dependency byservice” view and a “dependency by location” view. The dependency byservice view can operate as a logical view that helps the userinvestigate the impact of a service failure. The view pivots towardscomponent owner or single-service failure. As shown in FIG. 1A, aselectable dropdown 102 can be provided via the dependency serviceinterface 100 to select a dependency by service view. Selecting thedependency by service populates a dependency information portion 104A ofthe dependency service interface 100 with dependency information ofservices (e.g., Tenant_Service_Alpha; Tenant_Service_Beta; andTenant_Service_Charlie). A dependency service information can beprovided in a tree like hierarchical structure (e.g.,Tenant_Service_Beta_02 112 shown in a tree hierarchy underTenant_Service_Beta)

The dependency by location view can operate as a physical view thathelps administrators investigate the impact of a physical location (suchas datacenter loss) or logical location (such as an update domain, orfault domain). As shown in FIG. 1B, a selectable dropdown 102 can beprovided via the dependency service interface 100 to select a dependencyby location view. Selecting the dependency by location view populates adependency information portion 104B of the dependency service interface100 with a dependency information of services based on location (e.g.,LOC_Alpha; LOC_Beta; and LOC_Charlie).

The dependency management system supports different types of dependencyexploration experiences to perform analysis on the dependency data. Afeature of dependency analysis is to find one or more services ofinterest. As such, to adequately support dependency exploration, thefollowing exploration capabilities are made available via the dependencymanagement system: In an exemplary embodiment, with reference to FIG.1C, the dependency service interface 100 includes a dependency searchbar 110 that supports identifying dependency information of a servicethat is searched. Dependency information can further include details ofdependency services portion 114 that populates incoming relations andoutgoing relations in corresponding incoming relations portion 116 andoutgoing relations portion 118 of the dependency interface 100. By wayof example, a user can search for a specific tenant by name (e.g.,Tenant_Service_Beta_02 110B) and dependency information including alisting of tenant services which depend on the searchedTenant_Service_Beta_02 (i.e., incoming relations) and a listing oftenant services that the searched Tenant_Service_Beta_02 (i.e., outgoingrelations) are generated. A user can search for a group of services byname. A user can then explore the tenants by location or hierarchy.

The dependency management system supports different types of dependencyannotation experiences to perform analysis on the dependency data. Thedependency management system is configured to detect and annotate eachdependency with appropriate service name and resolve all of thedependencies. It is possible that there may be missing links or failureto resolve a dependency name, such as utility machines, and externalservices to the infrastructure. The dependency management systemprovides a way to define a new service instance and one or more servicegrouping rules. A component team (owning the service) can annotate thedependency model (e.g. control plane, operational plane and data plane)and direction of the edge. The dependency management may store thisinformation and apply it to all instances of the tenant service. Thecomponent team can leverage the dependency graph as part of the designreview process to rationalize the set of dependencies and arrive at anoptimal architecture.

The dependency management system supports a portal (e.g., frontendwebsite) to view dependency information which can be hosted on premiseand/or in the cloud. The dependency data for the website may come fromSQL (SQL Azure or Local SQL with automatic fail-over) to ensure the siteis always available. The website can be implemented to ensure highavailability. It is contemplated that as part of the portal orindependently of the portal a data graph representation of thedependency data is made accessible. The dependency management systemfurther supports a Web-API that can be accessed programmatically toretrieve dependency data for a given dependency service tenant.

The data graph operates as a diagrammatical illustration of thedependency data that provides a visual representation of the dependencydata for further analysis. For example, a user can download a full graphor a partial graph as a file for detailed analysis. The data graphrepresentation can be based on an extensible markup languagerepresentation of directed graphs. For example, the data graph can be indirected graph markup language (DGML) file format that allows a user viathe portal or other application to explore the dependency graphinteractively to understand the underlying links that the analysis havedetected. An application supporting view the data graph representationcan support different types of modes to allow for flexibility in viewingthe data graph representation. For example, for larger graphs, differentmodes can provide an aggregated view of dependencies.

By way of example, FIGS. 2A and 2B illustrate data graph representationsof an exemplary dependency management system. In particular, FIG. 2A isa partial graph representation of several different dependency tenantservices including their dependents and dependencies. The data graph inFIG. 2A includes dependency tenant services 202A, 204, 206, 208 210 and212. The links (e.g., link 214A) show direct dependencies and facilitateanalysis for understanding activities between Rack_IP_01 andStore_Web_01_01. The services and links can further be annotated toprovide additional details within the data graph view. In FIG. 2B, analternative view of the data graph can provide access to the dependencydata. For example, the FIG. 2B include the Tenant_Service_Alpha (202B)that corresponds to the Tenant_Service_Alpha (202A) and illustratingdependents and dependencies of Tenant_Service_Alpha in another view.Other variations and combinations of data graph views of dependency dataare contemplated with embodiments described herein.

With reference to FIG. 3A, embodiments of the present disclosure can bediscussed with reference to an exemplary distributed computinginfrastructure 300A that is an operating environment for implementingfunctionality described herein of a dependency management system 300.The dependency management system 300 includes a dependency servicemanager 310, a plurality of collectors 320 (320A, 320B, 320C and 320D),a standard name provider 330, a dependency aggregator 340, a dependencydata store 350, and a frontend 352.

A system, as used herein, refers to any device, process, or service orcombination thereof. A system may be implemented using components ashardware, software, firmware, a special-purpose device, or anycombination thereof. A system may be integrated into a single device orit may be distributed over multiple devices. The various components of asystem may be co-located or distributed. The system may be formed fromother systems and components thereof. It should be understood that thisand other arrangements described herein are set forth only as examples.

Having identified various components of the distributed computingenvironments, it is noted that any number of components may be employedto achieve the desired functionality within the scope of the presentdisclosure. The various components of FIG. 3A are shown with lines forthe sake of clarity. Further, although some components of FIG. 3A aredepicted as single components, the depictions are exemplary in natureand in number and are not to be construed as limiting for allimplementations of the present disclosure. The dependency managementsystem functionality can be further described based on the functionalityand features of the above-listed components.

Other arrangements and elements (e.g., machines, interfaces, functions,orders, and groupings of functions, etc.) can be used in addition to orinstead of those shown, and some elements may be omitted altogether.Further, many of the elements described herein are functional entitiesthat may be implemented as discrete or distributed components or inconjunction with other components, and in any suitable combination andlocation. Various functions described herein as being performed by oneor more entities may be carried out by hardware, firmware, and/orsoftware. For instance, various functions may be carried out by aprocessor executing instructions stored in memory.

In operation, the dependency service manager 310 of the dependencymanagement system 300 supports an analysis pipeline and utilizes thedata in a defined flow to refine the dependency data appropriately. Thedata that is used in the analysis and generation of the dependency datais retrieved using the plurality of collectors 320. A collector isconfigured to retrieve the information or data about the services.Collectors target the collection of information at design time, runtime,and deployment time. A collector can be associated with a collectiontime (e.g., via a collection time attribute) such that the collectorretrieves data based on the particular collection time. Collectors canalso annotate any collected data at the time of collection to provide ahistorical view of the collected data.

There are several different types of collection times or phases that theplurality of collectors 320 can support. Design time collection supportsunderstanding dependencies between modules and type of services (e.g.usage of client libraries or common library usage). Design timecollection can include static dependency analysis, layer mapping, andfault model analysis. Static dependency analysis refers to a techniquefor determining dependencies between program binaries. Static dependencyanalysis is done by analyzing the binaries used, referenced or includedin the package. These dependencies suggest dependencies on services butnot dependencies of specific instances of services. Layer mapping refersto a grouping of services into a hierarchical structure that allows forproper layering between services (e.g., lower level services do notdepend on higher-level services). The layer mapping can supportvalidating the data graph representation and ensure proper design. Alayer map is a model of the dependencies between program binaries, andmay not be an exact representation. A fault model is a template thatdescribes the various ways a program can fail at runtime, and the impactof such faults on execution. Fault model analysis is manualdocumentation design for dependency layering to show how a fault in oneor more dependencies propagates through a system. For example,dependency can be modeled on SQL, as non-critical, which means that afailure in SQL should not inherent failures. In this regard, anyanalysis should not consider failure in the SQL component as the likelycause of a service failure.

Deployment time collection (e.g., name resolvers) supports mapping aparticular deployment to a service type (e.g. Tenant_Serivce_Alpha_01instance is part of logical Tenant Service_Alpha) and remapping names(e.g. deployment GUIDs to names). Deployment time collection alsosupports downloading and parsing deployment artifacts to collectstatically declared dependencies. Statically declared dependencies caninclude the specific instantiation of a dependency from a first serviceto a second service to a first service instance to a second serviceinstance. In this regard, if a plurality of instances exists severalindividual dependencies can be deduced. Static design time tool may onlyprovide dependency at a service level while deployment and runtime toolsprovide service instance level dependencies. Deployment time collectionfurther supports collecting physical inventory of clusters and logicalinventory of virtual machines and internet protocol addresses (VMs/IPs).Deployment time collection can include TFS and datacenter settings(e.g., a datacenter.xml file). Runtime collection supports discoveringdependencies of services as they are performing operations based atleast in part on the network traffic between them. It is contemplatedthat the communication between services can be directly via APIs orindirectly via an intermediary component such as a data store or anevent system. Runtime collection can include tenant configuration (SVD)and distributed computing infrastructure events. The dependency servicemanager 310 can operate to crosscheck the data or dependency informationin data sets (e.g., a table) populated by the collectors. The dependencyservice manager 310 generates relations between tenants and resources.

As shown in FIG. 3A, the dependency service manager 310 operates with aplurality of external components. A data store (e.g., dependencydatabase 350) can store dependency data or dependency information andsupport data processing functionality supported by the service and thefrontend 352 can communicate with the data store and supportcommunicating the information for display via a display. A data storecan operate based on APIs to provide the functionality described herein.In embodiments, the distributed computing infrastructure may include anon-premise infrastructure 354. The on-premise infrastructure can be fora client of the distributed computing infrastructure, a remoteinfrastructure for access to the dependency service, or an off-premisehigh availability and disaster recovery infrastructure. The on-premiseinfrastructure can include a dependency database on-premise 356 and afrontend on-premise 358, where the databases on-premise is synced tocontain up-to-date information of the dependency data and communicatethe dependency data via the frontend on-premise.

With continued reference to FIG. 3A, standard name provider 330 isresponsible for correlating different naming conventions across servicesinto a normalized form. The standard name provider 330 component canoperate to take input data from different types of agents (e.g.,runners) and outputs a standard name. In one exemplary implementation,the standard name provider 330 uses a workflow that includes thefollowing: the standard name provider 330 receives a request from acollector, the request from a collector of a specific type queries thestandard name provider 330 using data collected by the collector. Thestandard name provider 330 then outputs a standard name of the targeteddependency service tenant; and the collector uses the standard name toupdate the dependency service tenant's metadata information. Metadatainformation can be provided via the dependency service interface asdiscussed in more detail herein.

A collector can retrieve data items that are used to request a standardname from the standard name provider. A collector can retrieve differenttypes of data items for a particular service. One or more of the dataitems retrieved can be specifically used for lookups for each type ofcollection. For example, in Table 1 below, Table 1 illustrates differentcollector types and collected data (e.g., input data) that are used forretrieving a standard name. The data items highlighted can be used forlookups in order to get the standard name. MDS collectors can use theTenantID, the SVD collectors can use both the TenantID and VIP, and theDNS collectors can use the VIP and Timestamp.

TABLE 1 Collector Type Input Data MDS TenantID*, ScaleUnit, ServiceName,RoleInstances, Timestamp SVD TenantID*, VIP* DNS DNS name, VIP*,Timestamp*

In this regard, the standard name provider operates to lookup a standardname based on data provided by the collectors. Standard name providermay use different data structures for lookup purposes in order to findthe standard name. In an exemplary embodiment, the standard nameprovider 330 uses a table (e.g., standard name table). In addition tousing the standard name table for lookups and logic, the table, orcorresponding data structure for lookups and logic can also be used fordependency service tenants and role lookups.

An exemplary standard name table is illustrated below in Table 2. Thestandard name table can be configured to allow duplicated records (e.g.,same combination of Name and Type). With this configuration, thedependency service can provide different views of the same dependencyservice tenant from different runner's point of view. For example,Tenant WaTaskSN1 is upgraded with a new VIP 200.1.4.6 instead of200.1.3.5. The collector for SVD has this upgrade information, andinserts a new record (i.e., VIP|200.1.4.6|WaTaskSN1|2013-07-0411:05:17|) as shown below in Table 2. The TimeStamp column can indicatethe freshness of the data. Based on that, a garbage collection orcleanup logic can be implemented to delete records that are stalemaintained by a daemon thread. The lookup logic is based on acombination of Kind and Value, where the combination of Kind and Valueis advantageously unique.

TABLE 2 Kind Value (Primary Key) (Primary Key) Name TimeStamp VIP200.1.3.5 WaTaskSN1 2013-07-03 17:05:17 TenantID 0xabc WaTaskSN12013-07-03 17:05:17 VIP 200.1.4.6 WaTaskSN1 2013-07-04 11:05:17

Once the SVD runners get the standard name, it can update metadata intable “TenantMetadataEntities”. By way of example, the table“TenantMetadataEntities” can look as shown in Table 3:

TABLE 3 Name Key (Primary Key) Value (Primary Key) WaTaskSN1 VIP200.1.3.5 WaTaskSN1 TenantID 0xabc WaTaskSN1 DeploymentID 111

The dependency management system 300 can also support an artifacts tablethat stores a plurality of objects defined in the dependency managementsystem. An exemplary artifact can be a component of a dependencyservice, where the attributes of the component are captured in theartifact table. For example, as shown in Table 4, the component name isWaTask and the corresponding attributes of WaTask can be populated intothe table. In particular, the “RelativePath” column in the artifactstable can be the standard name and uniqueness is forced on this column.

TABLE 4 Component ArtifactId TimeStamp Name Kind RelativePath WeightLabel ComponentVersion WaTask Tenant WaTaskSN1

The dependency management system includes several different types ofcollectors. Collectors can be deployment time, design time, or runtimebased collectors. Several collectors within each category may further bedesignated as MDS related collectors, standard name collectors, MDSdependency collectors, and SVD based collectors. In particular, the oneor more runtime-based collectors may include: MDS related collectors(e.g., standard name collectors, MDS dependency collectors), SVD basedcollectors. MDS related collectors can provide a baseline set ofinformation for runtime dependency collection. The collectors runningwithin MDS are done using different platforms or services (e.g., runner,watchdog, plugin, rules or embedded services) depending on the needs.

With reference to FIG. 3B, FIG. 3B illustrates a data aggregationmechanism that is implemented using a dependency service manager. At ahigh level, the data aggregation mechanism includes a name provideraggregator 360A and a standard name resolver 360B, a dependency analyzer370, a network data resolver 380 and a symbolic network data 386. Theabove-recited components are operationally coupled to dependencyaggregator 390 which communicates with the dependency database 392 andfrontend 394. In combination, the components support dependencyaggregation and dependency data communication in the dependencymanagement system.

The name provider aggregator 360A is associated with a plurality ofstandard name collectors (e.g., data services 362, tenant events 364,deployment events 366, datacenter monitor 368). The standard namecollectors can operate as a first layer of collectors. The first layerof collectors uses various types of information to build an IP (VIP orDIP) to stable dependency service tenant name mapping. The standard nameservice provides a stable platform to normalize the names and dependencyservice tenant information for any further correlation or annotation. Astandard name collector can be implemented in one embodiment as a runner(e.g., MA list, CS) and rules (e.g., event processing) to generate thestable list of names and the current set of IP to standard namemappings.

The standard name collectors monitor different types of events. Forexample, MDS monitoring agents, hardware and software components,frontend, and tenant deployment and update events. This provides a listof known dependency service tenants and their current VIP allocations tobe used for dependency resolution. The CS collector monitors fordatacenter inventory changes (through monitoring of CS changes) andassigns names to hardware entities like clusters, racks, powerdistribution unit, top of rack switch, etc. These items also allowfuture construction of a physical view and allocations.

A second layer of collectors can include MDS dependency collectors. AnMDS based collector updates the dependency graph by converting rawnetwork events (e.g., WINDOWS socket events) into a symbolic stableversion. The network data resolver 380 can operate as a filter and canleverage the standard name provider to resolve a particular IP addressto a service dependency, raise the Winsock/DNS event and result inupdating the service-to-service dependency when the events areprocessed. As shown in FIG. 3B, MDS dependency collectors includenetwork specification 382 (e.g., Winsock/DNS) and network naming system384 (e.g., DNS service) that operate in combination with the standardname resolver 360B (i.e., dynamic name resolution information) to updatedependency data based on network events. In this stage, the network dataresolver 380 aggregates data from specific machine instances, so itprovides an aggregate view of the dependency rather than individualmachine information. The network data resolver 380 operates to provide amapping of a name (e.g., account.blob.storage.cloud-service.com) to anIP address. In this regard, the network data resolver 380 provides moregranular information of specific storage accounts (or other names) to anIP to enable correlation at a fine-grained level and correlation ofdependencies and services through an intermediate storage account orother event system or mechanism. For example, if service A and service Bboth use account ABQueue.queue.cloud-service.com, the dependency servicesystem thus provides information that service A and B depend onqueue.cloud-service.com, but also service A and B depend on each other.Even though service A and B may not directly communicate.

SVD based collectors (e.g., service model definition 372) can operatebased on service model definitions to collect data that is used togenerate dependency data. By way of background, a service model canrefer to a template which can be used to create instances of a serviceand includes several different elements (e.g., Service, Role, Group,Channel, Topology, and hosting environment). For example,

Service: Structured set of Roles, groups, and channels, describing atype of service. The service presents a set of configuration settings(which must be bound to particular values for deployment), a series ofinput interfaces (constituting its Contract), and a series ofdependencies on the interfaces of other service contracts.

Component: each independently scalable unit, of which it can be either aRole or a Group. Role: Each type of component of a Service, a type ofprogram, designed to be multiple instantiated. Group: Set of otherGroups, Roles and channels. The minimal group is a Role. Enables theinstantiation of a predefined set of roles and channels.

Channel: establishes connections between groups, relating the instancesin various ways (e.g. load balancer, stateful and stateless switchchannels).

Topology: description of the Service's structure (groups, roles,channels and associated interconnect, affinity among Roles, etc.)

Hosting Environments: Runtime needed by a Role (e.g., a particular OSSKU)

Each tenant of the distributed computing infrastructure can be createdor updated with a corresponding SVD file and the SVD file contains theservice model definition of the service and some settings that implyreferences to other services. The SVD and operation model, especially ifregulated or standardized, can be leveraged by using heuristics andadvocating proper guidelines. In this regard, the service modeldefinition can include objects in the definitions that can be identifiedby a collector and then used to generate dependency data. The dependencycollector can discover most dependencies before the dependency servicetenant actually runs. Identifying dependency data based on an SVD can bebased on one or more of the following: an input endpoint of SVD; thespecification of SVD where the input endpoint is declared for thereference with other services; the name of setting follows a well-knownnaming convention; and the value of the setting matches a certainwell-known pattern (e.g., a DNS name). In one example, a collector cangenerate a dependency reference to data using an XML representation. Assuch, the collector can resolve the storage account(storage_account_alpha) to a specific VIP (IP_storage_account_alpha) andthe source of the dependency. The overall dependency can includepointing to the dependency to a storage component and the name of thestorage component.

With continued reference to FIG. 3B, design time collectors (e.g.,design time collectors 374) operate to capture an intent of a user(e.g., a service administrator) using a symbolic representation. Thesymbolic representation allows stronger inferences to be made fromruntime dependencies (non-accidental) and detect dependencies that arenot constantly in-use. The design time collection model allows moreattributes including: dataflow direction, the FMA plane, priority ofdependency by business impact, expected design time dependency (e.g., afrontend depends on a location service, storage infrastructure,operations hardware or software infrastructure or SQL servers andservices). The design collection model can be represented in XML. Inparticular, the representation of the design time collections isindented to capture the developer-provided information and prioritizethe dependencies found at runtime. The multiple collectors are used totransform other dependency tracking tools information (e.g. LayerMap,ALMap, package analysis) into a common format. LayerMap can refer todeclarative layering between portions of the software stack to ensureproper pattern of references. The LayerMap can be used within anoperating system to ensure code in higher portions of the operatingsystem only reference appropriate portions of that are lower and thereexist no reference in the other direction (i.e., lower to higher). ALMaprefers to design for FMA to document the layering diagram across servicewithin a cloud operating system rather than a classic OS. Packageanalysis can refer to using the existing packages (e.g., NuGet, cspkg)and opening their content or dependency listing to understand what otherservice may be utilized. The benefits of design time collectors is thatthe design time collectors are typically less noisy and require lowprocessing cost.

With reference to deployment collectors, the deployment collectors aredesigned to monitor deployment information to be able to have additionalmetadata about deployments (when, where, who) and trigger refresh of theparsing logic to have immediate update to the data. The TFS collectorautomatically enumerates dependencies and dependents of distributedcomputing infrastructure from TFS records. A TFS source code managerincluding automated builds of code amongst other functionality. TFScollector data helps classify the tenants into service groups andassociate with the component team. The CS collector enumeratesconfiguration data stored within CS configuration store to collectcurrent settings used for deployment prior to deployment transformation(symbolic instead of specific). It also can collect the hardwarelocation/IPs/assignment to map from specific hardware/VM to clusterinformation. The storage of this information in the CS is only anexemplary implementation and is not meant to be limiting. In anotherexemplary embodiment, the data can be stored in other data stores ordata structures, such a production hardware management service.

With reference to FIG. 3B, the dependency aggregator 390 isoperationally coupled to standard name resolver 360B for dynamic nameresolution, symbolic network data 386, the dependency analyzer 370 thatprovides service model definitions and design time collector data.During an aggregation process, the dependency aggregator retrieves datafrom the collectors and stores the dependency data in a dependencydatabase 392 that supports communicating the dependency data to thefrontend 394. The dependency database 392 can also support communicatingthe dependency data to a Web-API Service to enable programmatic accessto retrieve the data to enable automatic recovery operations rather thandisplay the data on a Portal for users to parse through. It iscontemplated that the dependency database 392 and frontend 394 can besynced with an on-premise infrastructure. Many core components supportmulti-tenancy, which cause the core components to initialize networktraffic on-behalf of dependency service tenants.

Table 5 is an illustration of the different types of collectors. Thefollowing table further summarizes the data collected from each of thecollectors mentioned above:

TABLE 5 Collector Type Data LayerMap Design Binary[CONTAINED_IN]Role (), Static dependency Design Binary[CONTAINED_IN]Package (automatic)analysis ALMap (FMA) Design Role[DEPENDS_ON]Role(semi-manual),Service[DEPENDS_ON]Service (semi-manual) CS DeploymentBlade[CONTAINED_IN]Rack, Rack[CONTAINED_IN]Cluster,Cluster[CONTAINED_IN]DC Service(Core)[CONTAINED_IN]Cluster, UtilityMachine's Metadata (e.g., location, IP) TFS DeploymentComponent[CONTAINED_IN]Team Deployment (Version, Service, Build) SVDretrieval Runtime Service[DEPENDS_ON]Account (setting) Servicemetadata(Build[VHD]) FC/RDFE polling Runtime FCService[CONTAINED_IN]RDFE Service Service metadata (Name, VIP) Account[DEPENDS_ON] Service MDS: Frontend/ Runtime FC deploymentsInfrastructure Events MDS: Winsock Runtime Role[DEPENDS_ON]Role,Role/Service[DEPENDS_ON]Service/ MDS: DNS RuntimeRole[DEPENDS_ON]Account

Symbols: [DEPENDS_ON] indicates a Dependency,—a coupling where oneobject operates based on functions of another—and [CONTAINED_IN]indicates Contained—when a particular item is part of a larger concept.For example, a blade is part of a rack, rack is part of a datacenter. Arole can be a part of a service.

The dependency management system further supports manual editing.Although a majority of the dependency information can be automaticallydeduced and correlated using components described herein, the user maystill need to modify and annotate the information. For this purpose, thedependency service interface (e.g., portal) supports an additionalediting experience. For example, a component team can upload thedesigned dependency through the portal or the underlying data service.

Advantageously, the component team can document all the servicereferences so services are properly categorized. When there is aruntime-detected dependency, a component team member can define the FMAplane and direction of a flow edge. The dependency management system canalso operate to capture inputs in a central location. Capturing inputsin a central location ensures the service owner editing experience issmooth. The component team can develop a review process, so the changescan reflect back to the component team's source code, and the dependencyis properly advocated.

The dependency service interface via a portal, for example, can furtherenable user to correlate an un-resolved communication target with aservice or a properly categorized node like internal DNS server etc. Thedependency management system aggregates a number of sources to generatethe dependency graph that is updated periodically. The differentcollectors retrieve and communicate data from a number of sources tocollect the information on platform tenants, group them into servicesand associate them with a component team. The collectors are configuredto collect information from variety of sources (code, config, runtime,and deployment information) the distributed computing infrastructure,including a cloud computing platform and on-premise infrastructure. Theaggregated data can be stored in multiple locations forhigh-availability in case of disaster recovery (DR) and maintainedwithin reasonable freshness at all locations. The dependency managementsystem 300 operates to monitor the staleness of any data to ensure it isproviding a consistent view with the real world.

The dependency management system 300 also supports reliability andmaintenance framework. The dependency management system 300 can includea recovery dependency services UI. The recovery dependency can beredundant to provide information independent of potential failures. Inone embodiment, the recovery dependency services are located both onpremise and within the cloud computing platform to provide redundancy tolocal and regional failures. The dependency management system 300 canutilize synchronization technologies to ensure both locations are keptupdated in reasonable time.

Advantageously, the processing pipeline is located within the cloudcomputing platform to utilize the scalability and low-maintenance of thecloud environment. The plurality of collectors access resources as partof existing pipelines (e.g. CS replication, cloud computing platformanalysis). The processing pipeline utilizes the existing monitoringtechnologies (MDS) to monitor health, alarm for pipeline problems andmonitor pipeline KPI.

The dependency management system can support a dependency data layer.The dependency data layer can be implemented based on a dependency graphor other graphical representation as described hereinabove. Thedependency graph or data graph can include nodes and edges associatedwith a failure recovery mechanism that is implemented via the dependencymanagement system. In an embodiment having the dependency graph, nodesin the dependency graph are the unit of recovery operation anddependency display for operator or developer. Some of the major nodes ofinterest are the service instances (tenants) endpoints, and utilitymachines (e.g., jump boxes to bootstrap services). Because recoveryaction needs to be presented in a human manageable way, the granularityof the recovery graph typically shows dependency tenant level artifacts.The smaller-resources (e.g., storage, machines) can be highlighted forpotential recovery actions, but are not required for full pivotingoptions. The edges of the graph are directional; the information flowsdirection is critical for recovering order. The edge of the graph cancontain the failure model of the service, e.g. runtime plane, managementplane, monitoring plane or control plane. The edge contains weight whichreflects the importance of the link (first order of approximation willbe traffic volume, but other measures may be used).

The dependency data layer further includes a node naming mechanism. Thenode in the graph can be configured with a global id, which follows astandardized taxonomy. The approach can be used to identify a node by ahierarchy. The hierarchy can be by the logical service ownership or bythe physical location. Further, the node can be identified by conventionhierarchy, for example, Storage Account Access:Component/Tenant/AccountName/dnsName; Tenant:Component/Tenant;RoleInstance:Component/Tenant/RoleName/RoleInstance; andBlade:DataCenter/Cluster/Rack/Blade. By convention. the nodes(components, tenant, role, binaries, and source/configuration files) canhave a stable Uniform Resource Identifier (URI). The URI's segmentscontain component name (ComponentName), the type of the artifacts(Kind), and relative path to the artifact (RelativePath). Therelationship edge still can have detailed version, so the client canselectively merge the information. The dependency data layer can furtherbe presented in a graphical representation (e.g., dependency graph). Thedependency graph can be used in both batch uploading and an end-userbrowsing scenarios. The information can be encoded in various formats toaddress functional and performance requirement for different scenarios.

The dependency data layer further includes Artifact/Relationship tocapture the common data contract to exchange dependency information. Asshown in FIG. 3C, exchanged of dependency information can be based on adependency graph logic format between Artifacts and Relationships (e.g.,ArtifactKind 302 and Artifact 304 and Relationship 306 andRelationshipKind 308) and their corresponding attributes. Variousservices can exchange dependency information in binary, xml and otherformat as appropriate to the scenario.

With continued reference a graphical representation supported via thedependency data layer, a node and an edge can carry a set of properties,with some well-known properties indexed for faster search. The followingare example label for user-friendly names. Kind to classify the node orlink and simplify search experience. ComponentName: the logical name forthe service. RelativePath: The unique path identifies the node in thiscomponent and kind. Weight help clients sort the information byimportance. LastUpdateTime for the last time, the information wasupdated, so the collector can cache old information, execute anincremental update, and retire the old record. Examples of kind,component names and relative paths are illustrated in table 6 below.

TABLE 6 ComponentName RelativePath Kind (not null) (not null) ComponentService's Name Service's Name Tenant Service's Name (Parent's Name)Tenant's Name Role Service's Name Tenant's Name/ (Parent of Parent'sName) Role's Name

The dependency data layer can provide an additional data service, whichcan query the attributes like the following. Each type of node can havea different kind of property set, like service node have deployment id,service model etc. The graph's main storage can be a SQL data source,the database is backed up on-premise to provide disaster recoveryavailability. In one exemplary implementation, which is not meant to belimiting, the dependency data layer can map the entity model into thetables in SQL database with the use of the Entity Framework to simplifymaintenance. The dependency data layer may also provide functionality toupload/download a slice of the graph in a file as xml/dgml/etc.

The dependency management system 300 can provide support for indirectdependencies. Additional dependency processing can be done to detect theindirect dependencies between dependency service tenants. For example,an indirect dependency can refer to a dependency that uses storage,service bus, SQL as a communication channel. In this regard, thedependency is not only for one service on the ‘channel’ (the serviceproviding communication—e.g. Storage) but also between the two services.These dependencies are harder to detect because direct communication maynot exist between the two services. In this case, the communicationchannel (storage) will utilize the same account/queue/table names andboth services will read/write to these locations. By using thedependency analysis down to the exact accounts, it is possible to inferthis dependency by looking for having the same account utilized bymultiple services. The indirect dependency discovery mechanism candetect co-dependence between two dependency service tenants. Theautomated analysis can flag these dependencies for further processing socomponent teams could be required to declare them.

The dependency management system 300 can also support normalization. Byway of example, if the dependency management system using raw dependencyservice tenant name as in “Fabric,” the dependency data layer has toperform unnecessary operations with fragile binding. The dependencymanagement system provides a mechanism to standardize common dependencyservice tenant names in the distributed computing environment. Data canbe aggregated appropriately toward underlying logic entity that reflectsboth service name and the scale unit name. A naming convention guidancecan be provided for component teams, so the dependency analyzer canautomatically recognize their dependency service tenant's stable name.

Turning now to FIG. 4, a flow diagram is provided that illustrates amethod 400 for providing dependency management. The method can beperformed using the dependency service manager described herein.Initially at block 410, data from a plurality of collectors is received.The collectors access data, based on, a collection time attributeassociated with a corresponding collector, the collection time attributeis selected from one of the following: design time collection;deployment time collection; and runtime collection. The collectorsretrieve and update data of dependency service tenants based on acorresponding collection time attribute. Design time collection includesidentifying developer-provided dependency information that supportsidentifying dependencies and dependents of dependency service tenants.Deployment time collection includes mapping deployment services todependency service tenants based on monitoring deployment operations ofa distributed computing infrastructure of the dependency managementsystem. Runtime collection includes identifying dependencies ofdependency service tenants as operations of the dependency servicetenants are being performed based at least in part on network trafficcommunicated between components. In embodiments, at least portions ofthe data are communicated to a standard name provider that uses theportions of the data to lookup or generate a standard name for adependency service tenant.

At block 420, the data collected by the plurality of collectors isanalyzed to crosscheck and generate relations between dependency servicetenants and corresponding dependency and dependent components. Analyzingcan include processing the data from the collectors then generate thedependency data. At block 430, upon analyzing the data, dependency datais generated, the dependency data comprising dependencies and dependentsassociated with the dependency service tenants of a dependencymanagement system. Generating dependency data is based on implementing adependency aggregation mechanism to retrieve data based at least in parton service model definitions and heuristics defined for identifyingdependency service tenants based on the service model definitions.Generating dependency data is also based on implementing a dependencyaggregation mechanism using a first layer of collectors for building adependency service tenant to name mapping and a second layer ofcollectors for providing a dependency data representation of networkevents. The method can further include communicating the dependency datato support access to the dependency data based on a dependency serviceinterface and a data graph representation, the dependency serviceinterface comprising a logical view interface having at least twoselectable views that support presenting and accessing dependency dataand the data graph representation comprising nodes and edges associatedwith a failure recovery mechanism.

Turning now to FIG. 5, a flow diagram is provided that illustrates amethod 500 for providing dependency management. Computer storage mediahaving computer-executable instructions embodied thereon that, whenexecuted, by one or more processors, causes the one or more processorsto perform the method for dependency management. At block 510, adependency service interface is generated. The dependency serviceinterface includes a logical view interface having at least twoselectable views that support presenting and accessing dependency data.The dependency data is generated based on data from a pluralitycollectors, dependency data includes dependencies and dependentsassociated with tenant services of a dependency management system. Theplurality of collectors, accesses data, for generating the dependencydata, based on a collection time attribute associated with acorresponding collector, the collection time attribute is selected fromone of the following: design time collection; deployment timecollection; and runtime collection. At block 520, the dependency serviceinterface is populated with dependency data generated from the dataretrieved by the plurality of collectors.

A first selectable logical view of the logical view interface is adependency by service view that supports viewing failures of tenantservices, and a second selectable logical view of the logical viewinterface is a dependency by location view that supports viewingfailures of tenant service locations. The dependency service interfacefurther comprises dependency search bar, the dependency search barsupports searching for tenant services, where incoming relations andoutgoing relations are populated on the dependency service interfacebased searches performed using the dependency search bar. It iscontemplated that it is possible to present more views of dependencies,such as filters by location, current health of services or location.Further, views can be integrated with other data source, such as,compliance, health, error rates, current network load and CPU load toprovide a more comprehensive and integrated view of the dependency data.Advantageously, the different additional views enrich the dependencygraph and other health models of the distributed computing system.

The dependency service interface operates based on APIs that supportquerying and retrieving dependency data based at least in part onautomated access to a data graph representation of the dependency data,the data graph representation comprising nodes and edges associated witha failure recovery mechanism.

The dependency service interface further operates as a portal forviewing dependency data, wherein the portal further supports providingaccess to a data graph representation of the dependency data, whereinnodes in the data graph representation are associated with recoveryactions and edges indicate a failure model of the correspondingdependency service tenant.

With reference to the dependency management system, embodimentsdescribed herein support configuring, discovering, and communicatingdependencies between services in a distributed computing system. Thedependency management system components refer to integrated componentsfor managing dependencies. The integrated components refer to thehardware architecture and software framework that support data accessfunctionality using the dependency management system service platform.The hardware architecture refers to physical components andinterrelationships thereof and the software framework refers to softwareproviding functionality that can be implemented with hardware operatedon a device. The end-to-end software-based dependency management systemservice platform can operate within the dependency management systemservice platform components to operate computer hardware to providedependency management system service platform functionality. As such,the dependency management system service platform components can manageresources and provide services for the dependency management systemfunctionality. Any other variations and combinations thereof arecontemplated with embodiments of the present invention.

By way of example, the dependency management system platform can includean API library that includes specifications for routines, datastructures, object classes, and variables may support the interactionbetween the hardware architecture of the device and the softwareframework of the dependency management system service platform system.These APIs include configuration specifications for the dependencymanagement system platform system such that the driver component andcomponent therein can communicate with each other in the dependencymanagement system service platform, as described herein. In particular,APIs can support external services (e.g., health monitoring, compliancereview, etc.) to retrieve dependency information.

Having briefly described an overview of embodiments of the presentinvention, an exemplary operating environment in which embodiments ofthe present invention may be implemented is described below in order toprovide a general context for various aspects of the present invention.Referring initially to FIG. 6 in particular, an exemplary operatingenvironment for implementing embodiments of the present invention isshown and designated generally as computing device 600. Computing device600 is but one example of a suitable computing environment and is notintended to suggest any limitation as to the scope of use orfunctionality of the invention. Neither should the computing device 600be interpreted as having any dependency or requirement relating to anyone or combination of components illustrated.

The invention may be described in the general context of computer codeor machine-useable instructions, including computer-executableinstructions such as program modules, being executed by a computer orother machine, such as a personal data assistant or other handhelddevice. Generally, program modules including routines, programs,objects, components, data structures, etc. refer to code that performparticular tasks or implement particular abstract data types. Theinvention may be practiced in a variety of system configurations,including hand-held devices, consumer electronics, general-purposecomputers, more specialty computing devices, etc. The invention may alsobe practiced in distributed computing environments where tasks areperformed by remote-processing devices that are linked through acommunications network.

With reference to FIG. 6, computing device 600 includes a bus 610 thatdirectly or indirectly couples the following devices: memory 612, one ormore processors 614, one or more presentation components 616,input/output ports 618, input/output components 620, and an illustrativepower supply 622. Bus 610 represents what may be one or more busses(such as an address bus, data bus, or combination thereof). Although thevarious blocks of FIG. 6 are shown with lines for the sake of clarity,in reality, delineating various components is not so clear, andmetaphorically, the lines would more accurately be grey and fuzzy. Forexample, one may consider a presentation component such as a displaydevice to be an I/O component. Also, processors have memory. Werecognize that such is the nature of the art, and reiterate that thediagram of FIG. 6 is merely illustrative of an exemplary computingdevice that can be used in connection with one or more embodiments ofthe present invention. Distinction is not made between such categoriesas “workstation,” “server,” “laptop,” “hand-held device,” etc., as allare contemplated within the scope of FIG. 6 and reference to “computingdevice.”

Computing device 600 typically includes a variety of computer-readablemedia. Computer-readable media can be any available media that can beaccessed by computing device 600 and includes both volatile andnonvolatile media, removable and non-removable media. By way of example,and not limitation, computer-readable media may comprise computerstorage media and communication media.

Computer storage media include volatile and nonvolatile, removable andnon-removable media implemented in any method or technology for storageof information such as computer-readable instructions, data structures,program modules or other data. Computer storage media includes, but isnot limited to, RAM, ROM, EEPROM, flash memory or other memorytechnology, CD-ROM, digital versatile disks (DVD) or other optical diskstorage, magnetic cassettes, magnetic tape, magnetic disk storage orother magnetic storage devices, or any other medium which can be used tostore the desired information and which can be accessed by computingdevice 600. Computer storage media excludes signals per se.

Communication media typically embodies computer-readable instructions,data structures, program modules or other data in a modulated datasignal such as a carrier wave or other transport mechanism and includesany information delivery media. The term “modulated data signal” means asignal that has one or more of its characteristics set or changed insuch a manner as to encode information in the signal. By way of example,and not limitation, communication media includes wired media such as awired network or direct-wired connection, and wireless media such asacoustic, RF, infrared and other wireless media. Combinations of any ofthe above should also be included within the scope of computer-readablemedia.

Memory 612 includes computer storage media in the form of volatileand/or nonvolatile memory. The memory may be removable, non-removable,or a combination thereof. Exemplary hardware devices include solid-statememory, hard drives, optical-disc drives, etc. Computing device 600includes one or more processors that read data from various entitiessuch as memory 612 or I/O components 620. Presentation component(s) 616present data indications to a user or other device. Exemplarypresentation components include a display device, speaker, printingcomponent, vibrating component, etc.

I/O ports 618 allow computing device 600 to be logically coupled toother devices including I/O components 620, some of which may be builtin. Illustrative components include a microphone, joystick, game pad,satellite dish, scanner, printer, wireless device, etc.

Referring now to FIG. 7, FIG. 7 illustrates an exemplary distributedcomputing environment 700 in which implementations of the presentdisclosure may be employed. In particular, FIG. 7 shows a high levelarchitecture of the dependency management system (“system”) in a cloudcomputing platform 710, where the system supports seamless modificationof software component. It should be understood that this and otherarrangements described herein are set forth only as examples. Otherarrangements and elements (e.g., machines, interfaces, functions,orders, and groupings of functions, etc.) can be used in addition to orinstead of those shown, and some elements may be omitted altogether.Further, many of the elements described herein are functional entitiesthat may be implemented as discrete or distributed components or inconjunction with other components, and in any suitable combination andlocation. Various functions described herein as being performed by oneor more entities may be carried out by hardware, firmware, and/orsoftware. For instance, various functions may be carried out by aprocessor executing instructions stored in memory.

Data centers can support the distributed computing environment 700 thatincludes the cloud computing platform 710, rack 720, and node 730 (e.g.,computing devices, processing units, or blades) in rack 720. The systemcan be implemented with a cloud computing platform 710 that runs cloudservices across different data centers and geographic regions. The cloudcomputing platform 710 can implement a fabric controller 740 componentfor provisioning and managing resource allocation, deployment, upgrade,and management of cloud services. Typically, the cloud computingplatform 710 acts to store data or run service applications in adistributed manner. The cloud computing infrastructure 710 in a datacenter can be configured to host and support operation of endpoints of aparticular service application. The cloud computing infrastructure 710may be a public cloud, a private cloud, or a dedicated cloud.

The node 730 can be provisioned with a host 750 (e.g., operating systemor runtime environment) running a defined software stack on the node730. Node 730 can also be configured to perform specializedfunctionality (e.g., compute nodes or storage nodes) within the cloudcomputing platform 710. The node 730 is allocated to run one or moreportions of a service application of a tenant. A tenant can refer to acustomer utilizing resources of the cloud computing platform 710.Service application components of the cloud computing platform 710 thatsupport a particular tenant can be referred to as a tenantinfrastructure or tenancy. The terms service application, application,or service are used interchangeably herein and broadly refer to anysoftware, or portions of software, that run on top of, or access storageand compute device locations within, a datacenter.

When more than one separate service application is being supported bythe nodes 730, the nodes may be partitioned into virtual machines (e.g.,virtual machine 752 and virtual machine 754). Physical machines can alsoconcurrently run separate service applications. The virtual machines orphysical machines can be configured as individualized computingenvironments that are supported by resources 760 (e.g., hardwareresources and software resources) in the cloud computing platform 710.It is contemplated that resources can be configured for specific serviceapplications. Further, each service application may be divided intofunctional portions such that each functional portion is able to run ona separate virtual machine. In the cloud computing platform 710,multiple servers may be used to run service applications and performdata storage operations in a cluster. In particular, the servers mayperform data operations independently but exposed as a single devicereferred to as a cluster. Each server in the cluster can be implementedas a node.

Client device 780 may be linked to a service application in the cloudcomputing platform 710. The client device 780 may be any type ofcomputing device, which may correspond to computing device 700 describedwith reference to FIG. 7, for example. The client device 780 can beconfigured to issue commands to cloud computing platform 710. Inembodiments, client device 780 may communicate with service applicationsthrough a virtual Internet Protocol (IP) and load balancer or othermeans that directs communication requests to designated endpoints in thecloud computing platform 710. The components of cloud computing platform710 may communicate with each other over a network (not shown), whichmay include, without limitation, one or more local area networks (LANs)and/or wide area networks (WANs).

Having described various aspects of the distributed computingenvironment 700 and cloud computing platform 710, it is noted that anynumber of components may be employed to achieve the desiredfunctionality within the scope of the present disclosure. Although thevarious components of FIG. 7 are shown with lines for the sake ofclarity, in reality, delineating various components is not so clear, andmetaphorically, the lines may more accurately be grey or fuzzy. Further,although some components of FIG. 7 are depicted as single components,the depictions are exemplary in nature and in number and are not to beconstrued as limiting for all implementations of the present disclosure.

Embodiments described in the paragraphs below may be combined with oneor more of the specifically described alternatives. In particular, anembodiment that is claimed may contain a reference, in the alternative,to more than one other embodiment. The embodiment that is claimed mayspecify a further limitation of the subject matter claimed.

The subject matter of embodiments of the invention is described withspecificity herein to meet statutory requirements. However, thedescription itself is not intended to limit the scope of this patent.Rather, the inventors have contemplated that the claimed subject mattermight also be embodied in other ways, to include different steps orcombinations of steps similar to the ones described in this document, inconjunction with other present or future technologies. Moreover,although the terms “step” and/or “block” may be used herein to connotedifferent elements of methods employed, the terms should not beinterpreted as implying any particular order among or between varioussteps herein disclosed unless and except when the order of individualsteps is explicitly described.

For purposes of this disclosure, the word “including” has the same broadmeaning as the word “comprising,” and the word “accessing” comprises“receiving,” “referencing,” or “retrieving.” In addition, words such as“a” and “an,” unless otherwise indicated to the contrary, include theplural as well as the singular. Thus, for example, the constraint of “afeature” is satisfied where one or more features are present. Also, theterm “or” includes the conjunctive, the disjunctive, and both (a or bthus includes either a or b, as well as a and b).

For purposes of a detailed discussion above, embodiments of the presentinvention are described with reference to a distributed computingenvironment; however the distributed computing environment depictedherein is merely exemplary. Components can be configured for performingnovel aspects of embodiments, where configured for comprises programmedto perform particular tasks or implement particular abstract data typesusing code. Further, while embodiments of the present invention maygenerally refer to the head-mounted display unit and the schematicsdescribed herein, it is understood that the techniques described may beextended to other implementation contexts.

Embodiments of the present invention have been described in relation toparticular embodiments which are intended in all respects to beillustrative rather than restrictive. Alternative embodiments willbecome apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art to which thepresent invention pertains without departing from its scope.

From the foregoing, it will be seen that this invention is one welladapted to attain all the ends and objects hereinabove set forthtogether with other advantages which are obvious and which are inherentto the structure.

It will be understood that certain features and sub-combinations are ofutility and may be employed without reference to other features orsub-combinations. This is contemplated by and is within the scope of theclaims.

The invention claimed is:
 1. A system for implementing dependencymanagement, the system comprising: a plurality of collectors configuredto: access data, for generating dependency data, based on a collectiontime attribute associated with a corresponding collector, the collectiontime attribute is selected from one of the following: design timecollection, deployment time collection, and runtime collection, whereincorresponding design time, deployment time, and runtime areclassifications of declarative artifacts and analytical operations fortargeted collection of design data, deployment data, and runtime datathat are analyzed to generate dependency data for tenant services; and adependency service manager configured to: access the data collected bythe plurality of collectors; analyze the data collected to crosscheckand generate relations between dependency service tenants andcorresponding dependency and dependent components; and generatedependency data based on data retrieved by the plurality of collectors,the dependency data comprises dependencies and dependents associatedwith the dependency service tenants of a dependency management system.2. The system of claim 1, wherein the dependency service manager furthercomprises a standard name provider that supports a naming conventionacross dependency service tenants to generate and look up standard namesfor dependency service tenants.
 3. The system of claim 2, wherein theplurality of collectors retrieve and update data of dependency servicetenants based on corresponding collection time attributes, wherein atleast portions of the data are communicated to the standard nameprovider that uses the portions of the data to generate and look upstandard names for dependency service tenants, wherein the standard nameprovider operates at least in part with a network naming system toupdate dependency data based on network events.
 4. The system of claim1, wherein the dependency service manager communicates the dependencydata with a portal that provides access to a dependency serviceinterface and a data graph representation of the dependency data.
 5. Thesystem of claim 1, wherein the dependency service manager furthercomprises a dependency aggregator that implements a dependencyaggregation mechanism having a first layer of collectors for building adependency service tenant to name mapping and a second layer ofcollectors for providing a dependency data representation of networkevents; or a dependency aggregator that implements a dependencyaggregation mechanism for retrieving data based at least in part onservice model definitions and heuristics defined for identifyingdependency service tenants based on the service model definitions. 6.The system of claim 1, further comprising: during design timecollection, design time collectors from the plurality of collectorsretrieve data associated with one or more of the following: staticdependency analysis, layer mapping, and fault model analysis; duringdeployment time collection, deployment time collectors from theplurality of collectors retrieve data associated with one or more of thefollowing: team foundation service (TFS) and Configuration Store (CS);and during runtime collection, runtime collectors from the plurality ofcollectors retrieve data associated with one or more of the following:service model definitions and monitored events of a distributedcomputing infrastructure of the dependency management system.
 7. Thesystem of claim 1, wherein the dependency service manager transmits thedependency data to cause generation of a dependency service interfacecomprising a logical view interface having at least two selectable viewsthat support presenting and accessing dependency data and a data graphrepresentation comprising nodes and edges associated with a failurerecovery mechanism.
 8. A computer-implemented method for providingdependency management, the method comprising: receiving data from aplurality of collectors, wherein the plurality of collectors access databased on a collection time attribute associated with a correspondingcollector, the collection time attribute is selected from one of thefollowing: design time collection; deployment time collection; andruntime collection, wherein corresponding design time, deployment time,and runtime are classifications of declarative artifacts and analyticaloperations for targeted collection of design data, deployment data, andruntime data that are analyzed to generate dependency data for tenantservices; analyzing data collected by the plurality of collectors tocrosscheck and generate relations between dependency service tenants andcorresponding dependency and dependent components; upon analyzing thedata, generating dependency data comprising dependencies and dependentsassociated with the dependency service tenants of a dependencymanagement system; and communicating the dependency data to causegeneration of a dependency service interface having the dependency datagenerated from the data retrieved by the plurality of collectors.
 9. Themethod of claim 8, wherein the plurality of collectors retrieve andupdate data of dependency service tenants based on a correspondingcollection time attribute, wherein the standard name provider operatesat least in part with a network naming system to update dependency databased on network events.
 10. The method of claim 8, wherein design timecollection comprises identifying developer-provided dependencyinformation that supports identifying dependencies and dependents ofdependency service tenants.
 11. The method of claim 8, whereindeployment time collection comprises mapping deployment services todependency service tenants based on monitoring deployment operations ofa distributed computing infrastructure of the dependency managementsystem.
 12. The method of claim 8, wherein runtime collection comprisesidentifying dependencies of dependency service tenants as operations ofthe dependency service tenants are being performed based at least inpart on network traffic communicated between components.
 13. The methodof claim 8, wherein generating dependency data is based on identifyingindirect dependencies, wherein indirect dependencies between dependencyservice tenant are based on communication channels between dependencyservice tenant, a communication channel selectable from one of thefollowing: a storage; a service bus; a queue; and a Structured QueryLanguage (SQL) database.
 14. The method of claim 8, wherein generatingdependency data is based on implementing a dependency aggregationmechanism using a first layer of collectors for building a dependencyservice tenant to name mapping and a second layer of collectors forproviding a dependency data representation of network events.
 15. Themethod of claim 8, further comprising communicating the dependency datato support access to the dependency data based on the dependency serviceinterface and a data graph representation, the dependency serviceinterface comprising a logical view interface having at least twoselectable views that support presenting and accessing dependency dataand the data graph representation comprising nodes and edges associatedwith a failure recovery mechanism.
 16. One or more computer storagemedia having one or more hardware processors and memory storingcomputer-executable instructions and components embodied thereon that,when executed, by the one or more hardware processors, cause thehardware processors to execute a method for dependency management, themethod comprising: receiving dependency data based on data retrieved bya plurality of collectors, the dependency data comprises dependenciesand dependents associated with dependency service tenants of adependency management system, wherein the plurality of collectors accessdata based on a collection time attribute associated with acorresponding collector, the collection time attribute is selected fromone of the following: design time collection; deployment timecollection; and runtime collection, wherein corresponding design time,deployment time, and runtime are classifications of declarativeartifacts and analytical operations for targeted collection of designdata, deployment data, and runtime data that are analyzed to generatedependency data for tenant services; generating a dependency serviceinterface comprising a logical view interface having at least twoselectable views that support presenting and accessing dependency data,wherein the dependency data is generated based on data from a pluralityof collectors, dependency data comprises dependencies and dependentsassociated with tenant services of a dependency management system; andpopulating the dependency service interface with dependency datagenerated from the data retrieved by the plurality of collectors. 17.The media of claim 16, wherein a first selectable logical view of thelogical view interface is a dependency by service view that supportsviewing failures of tenant services, and wherein a second selectablelogical view of the logical view interface is a dependency by locationview that supports viewing failures of tenant service locations.
 18. Themedia of claim 16, wherein the dependency service interface furthercomprises dependency search bar, the dependency search bar supportssearching for tenant services, wherein incoming relations and outgoingrelations are populated on the dependency service interface basedsearches performed using the dependency search bar.
 19. The media ofclaim 16, wherein the dependency service interface further comprisesApplication Programming Interfaces (APIs) that support querying andretrieving dependency data based at least in part on automated access tothe dependency data.
 20. The media of claim 16, wherein the dependencyservice interface operates as a portal for viewing dependency data,wherein the portal further supports providing access to a data graphrepresentation of the dependency data, the data graph representationcomprising nodes and edges associated with a failure recovery mechanism.